When was this one taken Nimrod?
And down which drift?

Photograph:

🔗Groverake-Fluorite-Mine-User-Album-Image-034[linkphoto]Groverake-Fluorite-Mine-User-Album-Image-034[/linkphoto][/link]

Just recently, about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I dont know the name of it.. its the one that you have to crawl thru the collapse. Its waist deep water for quite a long way. There is an Iron ladder going down to I dont know where. The pic was taken near the end.

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Just recently, about 3 or 4 weeks ago. I dont know the name of it.. its the one that you have to crawl thru the collapse. Its waist deep water for quite a long way. There is an Iron ladder going down to I dont know where. The pic was taken near the end.

Ah ok, never had the time to head right down to the end of there, infact not been far beyond the collapse.
That drift is the original lead workings and link to the big workings up the hill (or once did) there are ways into the upper workings further up.
The Iron ladder will link down towards the later workings but will hit water between 180-200 feet.
I game to do the ladder next time I'm up if you fancy a play?
I'll have a word with a mate who worked there and find out if there's anything worth the look.
As I understand it the original drift id once link in to the Flourospar workings and was used as an egress until the second shaft was laddered.

Yes, definatly up for another explore in there. My last visit was by no mean very thorough. The ladder sounds "interesting" . 😉

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Yes, definatly up for another explore in there. My last visit was by no mean very thorough. The ladder sounds "interesting" . 😉

I've been down the egress ladderway in No2 shaft, it hits water at the 30 fathom level. there is a little airspace in the level but not enough to actually get in it.
A few of us have looked at the drainage level down the valley with a view to dropping the water level 3 or 4 feet. It would be just about feasable but not without turning the river orange and killing everything again.
Its also in full view of the road 😉
May be in the area briefly next month, if so I'll bring some gear and give you a shout, perhaps an recon in force at the other place we discussed to?

A few of us have looked at the drainage level down the valley with a view to dropping the water level 3 or 4 feet. It would be just about feasable but not without turning the river orange and killing everything again.

Mr Jagman, I love your style. If you do, take a video of the river changing colour. Would love to see that. :lol: :lol: :lol:

What's wrong with orange, it's a nice colour for a river - makes finding mines easier. 😉
Spend half my time looking at orange rivers.
If the drainage level is not currently draining then I assume it's blocked off, in which case is there another discharge anywhere else or is the mine still filling up?

Orange rivers can be fixed - just takes time and a bit of money 😉

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Have you seen the new outflow next to the farmers track, above the Tailrace Level, looks like thats the main drainage for the system now.

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Have you seen the new outflow next to the farmers track, above the Tailrace Level, looks like thats the main drainage for the system now.

Don't think I've seen that, not in the area these days.
The drainage level down by the river is free flowing but as far as I can tell its damned up to a depth of 4 or 5 feet, the damn bit being about15 feet thick.
Considered digging it out (too big a job in public) or encouraging it with a bit of chemical potion. Either option is likely to be very public and very noticable.
really should have my backside kicked for not taking a wander in there before the pumps where switched off and the lights were still on.

Is it a proper 'hydrostatic' dam?
Seems a bit daft to put a dam in a drainage level, 'cause it will only cause water to emerge somewhere else.
Any idea on the head of water above the 'dam'?

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Is it a proper 'hydrostatic' dam?
Seems a bit daft to put a dam in a drainage level, 'cause it will only cause water to emerge somewhere else.
Any idea on the head of water above the 'dam'?

No its just infill in the cut at the surface. No head of water behind it to speak of, just keeps the water level 4 or 5 feet higher than it would be without it, removing it would be enough to get into the 30 fathom level without drowning (I think)
Probably related to the great Environment Agency Screw up when they switched off the pumps.
Sherburn Stone (owners) enquired as the best way to deal with mine effluent after closure. After much ado the Environment Agency told them to switch of the pumps and the limestone would filter the water and it would emerge clean,
Pumps were duly switched off and a short time later the entire river turned orange and every living thing in the river for miles downstream died......
Environment Agency then compounded the error by destroying the remains of the old lead smelter to try and put filtration beds in which didn't work, as I understand it after that everybody kind of walked away and pretended it never happened :bored: I stand to be corrected if anybody has a more accurate version of the story

What do the EA know about mine water?
They should come to the experts!

They were similiar claims about limestone doing something similiar to a coal mine discharge, but it still discharged with approx 1000 mg/l iron in it and you only need >1mg/l to see the orange colour.

4 or 5 feet of water isn't going to remove the infill very quickly if at all.

It was probably other metals in the water, not the iron that killed most the wildlife

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It wasn't the Environment Agency who were consulted about what the water would do when the pumps were turned off, that was Professor Paul Younger of Newcastle University. He had been doing work in Groverake and Frazer's for a few years and did expect the Great Limestone to be permeable enough to drain what make of water there was in the mine. Unfortunately it wasn't.
To be fair his report did say if it didn't then water would just come out of the Tailrace Level, which is what happened

That's when the EA got involved, when orange water started spewing out of the Tailrace Level they promptly dug up a scheduled smeltmill site to install a totally useless 'settling pond' which did precisely nothing, the water going into the thing was of exactly the same quality as the water coming out of it.
P*ssed off the archaeologists no end about digging up their remains though.

Recently the water seems to have found a new way out, a hole has appeared next to the farm track and a good flow has been running down the field for a few months now. It started off a bit orange but looks cleaner now.

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Paul is my tutor for my dissertation so I can't say much more.
................. but predicting mine water quality is fairly difficult 😉

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@ Lee
You might find this interesting,

http://www.imwa.info/docs/imwa_2000/IMWA2000_24.pdf 

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Have you seen the new outflow next to the farmers track, above the Tailrace Level, looks like thats the main drainage for the system now.

How much higher is this new outflow?
If it continues to get higher then a considerable head of water may build up in the tailrace..... ::)

Thanks for link sparty_lea,
However, I had already seen the IMWA paper, there are also other similiar papers knocking around aswell.

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Its just below the track up to Wolfcleugh Farm, so not a great deal higher but a few meters. I don't think it will do you much good though -the Tailrace Level was apparently not very efficient as a drainage level and prone to silting up all the way along.

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By the way Jagman, when you say the Rake Level is connected to the Fluorspar workings do you mean the Workings from the shafts and Frazer's Dib? I thought the Rake Level and Firestone Dib were connected to each other (via the ladderway) but separate from the other two.

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Jagman/Nimrod give me a shout if your having another look beyond the collapse in the original drift (been wanting to have a look for a while now) 😉

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